Mason Mount misses England training ahead of Poland clash
Undroppable Mason Mount misses England training ahead of Poland World Cup qualifier with the Chelsea star working on conditioning indoors… days after Gareth Southgate said he can’t afford to rotate him
- Mason Mount sat out England’s outdoor training session on Tuesday morning
- The 22-year-old midfielder was hailed as ‘exceptional’ by Gareth Southgate
- Three Lions boss also said that he could not afford to rota the Chelsea star
- But his availability for Poland clash at Wembley on Wednesday is now uncertain
Chelsea star Mason Mount sat out England’s outdoor training session on Tuesday morning, putting his participation in their World Cup qualifier against Poland in doubt.
The 22-year-old midfielder was hailed as ‘exceptional’ by Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate following England’s 2-0 victory over Albania at the weekend.
Southgate said that he could not afford to rotate Mount and he was in line to start against Poland in the 2022 qualifying clash at Wembley on Wednesday night.
Gareth Southgate (left) is sweating over the fitness of England midfielder Mason Mount (right)
But his availability is now uncertain as the midfielder worked on his conditioning indoors away from the rest of the team at their current training base of Pennyhill Park, Bagshot, on Tuesday.
Mount started England’s 5-0 rout of San Marino last week and scored the second goal in the win last Sunday after starting in a three-man midfield.
When asked whether he’d consider starting Mount again against Poland, Southgate responded: ‘Absolutely, we’ve looked after all the players in the first game.
Southgate called Mount (left) ‘an exceptional player’ who creates chances and scores goals
‘As for his load coming into the camp, he didn’t play in the midweek in the Champions League. But regardless of that, we are trying to win and qualify for a World Cup and I can’t be constantly thinking about rotating the squad.
‘We’ve got a lot of players missing and we’ve tried to protect our forward players through that first part of the week. Now we have just got to try and win the games.’
Southgate has had to balance players’ workloads in order to try to reduce the risk of injury and fatigue with the 2020-21 season more congested than ever.
Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford had to withdraw from the England set-up last week with a foot problem while Arsenal youngster Bukayo Saka also had to pull out of the squad prior to the Albania match due to injury.
Mount has enjoyed a fine season with Chelsea and became a key player for Southgate
Southgate is now sweating over the fitness of Mount ahead of their toughest qualifier on the road to Qatar so far. He was the only member of the 24-man squad to miss the session on Tuesday but the issue is not understood to be serious.
Southgate will be able to give an update on Mount when he addresses the media at 6pm today.
The England boss was full of praise for the Chelsea midfielder last week, he said: ‘He is a very good player. I was saying this in the autumn, but I suppose now Thomas Tuchel is picking him everyone will agree. When it was Frank Lampard it didn’t count for some reason.
‘He is an exceptional player, he finds space intelligently, he manipulates the ball very well, he creates chances and he scores goals. I thought his performance was excellent tonight.’
Mount has started seven matches in a row for England and has enjoyed a fine season at Stamford Bridge despite initially losing his place in the team following the arrival of Thomas Tuchel as manager.
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